Tag Archives: fantasy football

Football season has begun, which means that fantasy football season has also begun. Again this year, I’m competing in the Pittsburgh bloggers fantasy league, now named the Yinz League.

My team includes Ben Roethlisberger, Randy Moss, the New England Defense, and a pile of other guys. I have players in the running back and TE positions, but I have little hope for them.

In general, it’s not a great team. Nonetheless I’m completely crushing PittGirl in this first week, thanks to Houston having no defense to slow Roethlisberger down and Randy Moss working well with the backup QB in New England.

Does a fall weekend get better than this? A gorgeous sunny afternoon, the Steelers winning, my fantasy team winning, and the prospect of a whole season ahead. Sweet.

In past years as a fantasy football manager, I spent many, many hours pouring over player and NFL team stats, adding and dropping players, changing my lineup several times each week, and watching hours (days!) of TV coverage. This year I’m more laid-back. I have made a few judicious free agent pickups, but I’ve adjusted lineups only a few times, and I haven’t watched more than a few minutes of analysis on TV.

It’s only week three, but so far this laisse-faire approach is working for me. I’m 1-1-0 in the LFM League (with my fellow grad school alumns) and 2-0-0 in the Pittsburgh Celebrity Bloggers League.

Of the two leagues, the PCBL is the more interesting. More teams mean tougher competition for players and closer games, plus much more trash talk so far. And the fact that I’m undefeated makes it more fun as well, of course.

(Please do check out STBD: It’s currently in season 4, but you can start watching from any point in the series. You’ll miss out on some of the ironies and jokes but you’ll catch on to the characters and situations quite quickly. It’s a bit bawdy and very funny.)

I’ve worked with Justin on PodCamp Pittsburgh 2 and the intro-level social media Bootcamp we ran earlier this year, plus on-going PodCamp Pittsburgh stuff, and he’s an all-around great fellow.

However, last week I put aside all that and whupped Justin in fantasy football, 145.27 to 94.07. My main weapon was Steve Smith of the Carolina Panthers, who brought me a gorgeous 43.30 points even as his team lost to Houston. Twenty-five points from the Minnesota defense helped as well.